Mazie's Amazing Machines

by Sheryl Haft, Jeremy Holmes (Illustrator)

Overview

As Mazie delights in building all sorts of fabulous inventions to solve household problems, kids will see how simple machines work.

Mazie McGear loves to engineer! Whenever she encounters a problem, she turns on her imagination and starts drawing and building--think blink, ribble scribble, bing bang boom! Need a more convenient way to feed the dog? No problem! Mazie invents the Food-o-Matic. Mom needs help carrying boxes? No worries! Mazie makes her a Roly-Ramp. You can always count on Mazie to invent a machine that will make life easier--although her brother, Jake, isn’t too thrilled with her Waker-Upper Rocket. But no worries. Engineering is so cool that before long he can’t help but get into the invention action too!

Featuring dynamic illustrations and a fun fold-out spread, this is a book that’s sure to inspire budding engineers while celebrating creative out-of-the-box thinking.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780399547874
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	09/12/2023
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	23 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Sheryl Haft (sherylhaft.com) founded Let’s Engineer!, a pre-school and elementary after-school program that teaches engineering principles through design and invention-building. Sheryl’s love of tinkering began by working in the garage with her dad, creating patented inventions. She is the author of other joyful, imaginative books: I Love You, Blankie, Baby Boo, I Love You and Goodnight Bubbala. She and her family live in New York City and Wyoming.

Jeremy Holmes (jeremyholmesstudio.com) is an internationally renowned children’s book illustrator. His picture books include There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly (winner of the BolognaRagazzi Opera Prima Award), Poem-mobiles (by J. Patrick Lewis and Douglas Florian), The Eye that Never Sleeps (by Marissa Moss), and Road Trip (by Claudia Friddell). He and his family live in Pennsylvania.

Editorial Reviews

07/17/2023

Haft (Goodnight Bubbala) introduces budding engineer Mazie McGear, a white-presenting red-haired child who relishes solving problems and inventing fantastical machines to help out at home. In a palette of rust and turquoise, polished stylized illustrations by Holmes (The Eye That Never Sleeps) show Mazie’s thought process: “First I turn on my imagination... Then I draw... Then... I build!” Mazie first rigs up a “food-o-matic” to feed family dog Doodle, who eats “so early every morning.” A pulley assembly makes use of Doodle’s natural interest in shoe-chewing to dispense food from atop the refrigerator. More machines follow, including the “Teeter-Lever,” which shoots basketballs and quells conflict with Mazie’s sibling Jake. When the Teeter-Lever inadvertently results in Doodle being delivered onto the roof, the whole family works together, combining the basic principles of Mazie’s machines to rescue the dog, rendered via a pop-up page. Pulsing with friendly energy, this STEM-starter conveys the sense that engineering is something any child can do. Back matter explains the ideas behind Mazie’s machines. Ages 4–8. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

Haft (Goodnight Bubbala) introduces budding engineer Mazie McGear . . . who relishes solving problems and inventing fantastical machines to help out at home. In a palette of rust and turquoise, polished stylized illustrations by Holmes (The Eye That Never Sleeps) show Mazie’s thought process: “First I turn on my imagination . . . Then I draw . . . Then . . . I build!” . . . Pulsing with friendly energy, this STEM-starter conveys the sense that engineering is something any child can do. Back matter explains the ideas behind Mazie’s machines.” —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

12/22/2023

Gr 2–5—Dive into simple machines, shenanigans, and family with this STEM-based picture book about a young girl named Mazie who loves to try to engineer her family's problems away. While her inventions aren't always the perfect solution she sought, her optimism and the support of her family throughout provide an uplifting, science-specific accompaniment to other popular picture books such as those in the "Questioneers" series. The stamped and graphite-based illustrations are reminiscent of 2010s cartoon series and provide a welcoming flatness that allows young readers to slip into each panel and action-driven step with Mazie. VERDICT While the flow of the text is not particularly dynamic, the STEM tie-ins and breakdown of simple machines in the back matter make this a good choice for classroom activities and for readers who love unpacking the secret science woven into illustrations.—Aryssa Damron

School Library Journal

2023-06-21
A child who loves engineering builds machines to help others with their problems.

Using pulleys, levers, ramps, and more, Mazie McGear makes lifting heavy objects and even feeding the dog, Doodle, easier for the rest of the family, who are all light-skinned and red-haired. Mazie’s brother, Jake, finds the constant engineering irritating, but when Doodle gets stuck on the roof, it’s up to Mazie to get him down. Though Mazie’s whimsical Rube Goldberg–esque contraptions demonstrate that engineering can be both useful and fun, many readers will find Jake’s frustrations with his overbearing sibling reasonable. Mazie’s “waker-upper rocket machine,” designed to prevent him from sleeping in, is downright “engi-noying,” as Jake puts it. His suddenly enthusiastic reaction to Mazie’s commandeering his basketball and using a “teeter-lever” to help him sink baskets is unrealistic, and the definitions of engineering-related terms interspersed throughout make the story feel contrived and purposeful. The limited palette, dominated by orange, gray, turquoise, and sepia, and lack of backgrounds in many of the illustrations give the tale a hollow and flat impression even as busy and crowded layouts interrupt the flow and result in the randomly inserted rhymes getting lost in the action. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An accessible but bland and clunky exploration of basic engineering concepts. (glossary of simple machines) (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews